Ashita no Joe

Ashita no Joe (あしたのジョー, lit. "Tomorrow's Joe") is a boxing manga written by Ikki Kajiwara, under the pen name Asao Takamori, and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba in 1968 that was later adapted into an anime series and later re-adapted into movies. Outside Japan it is also referred to as Champion Joe, Rocky Joe, Tomorrow's Joe, or simply Joe.

The series debuted as a manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine at a time when considerable economic and social upheaval was transforming Japanese culture in the late 1960s. Joe was essentially the tragic hero representing the struggle of the lower class. His trial and sacrifice to the sport was a semi-reflection of the will of the people he was representing. By the 1970s, manga readers and college students across Japan would turn the character into an icon.